Our Governers

What is a School Governor?

School governors are volunteers who work with school leaders to ensure high standards of education. Some are elected (staff and parent governors) and others are appointed  from the local community.

From December 2020 when we became part of The University of Winchester Academy Trust (UWinAT), our governing body became a Local Academy Committee, working alongside our Trustees who have overall responsibility for our five schools. This means that our governors focus solely on Awbridge, but the school benefits from excellent support and advice of trustees.

Wellow and Awbridge Primary Schools share a joint Local Academy Committee who work together to support and challenge each school through clear roles and responsibilities. Governors take a keen interest in the life of the school and support staff to raise standards through strong strategic leadership.

What do governors do?

School governors have a wide range of responsibilities, helping to raise standards of pupil achievement and planning the school’s future direction, always in consultation with the school leaders and other staff. We are also accountable for the performance of the school to parents and the wider community. We are not expected to take detailed decisions about the day-to-day management of the school: that is the job of the school leaders.

Governors’ responsibilities include:

• Helping to establish the aims and policies of the school and how standards of education can be constantly improved
• Ensuring that a broad and balanced curriculum is delivered and that it meets statutory requirements, while promoting high standards and monitoring progress during the year
• Appointing, challenging and supporting school leaders (being a ‘critical friend’)
• Acting as a link between the local community and the school
• Helping to set and manage the school budget
• Ensuring the health and safety of pupils and staff

At Awbridge Primary School we do this on several levels. We meet as a Local Academy Committee about six times a year.

Individual governors are also linked with a particular area, such as Special Educational Needs, Safeguarding, or a curriculum. This ensures that Governors ‘know their School’ and are able to challenge the school to achieve the very best outcomes for children.

All governors are encouraged to visit the school during the working day if they can, but we do not interfere in the day-to-day teaching or running of the school: we leave that to the professionals!

Hampshire Governor Services and the National Governors Association provide training in all aspects of governors’ responsibilities and we take full advantage of that, in order to be as effective as possible.

Please find below details of how our Governing Body is structured, including the names, categories, responsibilities and terms of appointment for each Governor: